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"Gulf stock markets are worried enough about plummeting oil prices and their drain on regional liquidity, let alone anything else. When you read reports, as in Barron’s this week, that commodity funds are positioned for $35 a barrel, that’s not particularly surprising.

While the US economy gives some countervailing hope of pickup, local investors might well worry too about downward trends in Asia, which was expected to be the next, thematic locomotive keeping business activity worldwide on track.

Moreover, there’s a parallel with this region in play, relating to the use of finance to leverage returns, inherently creating the scope for the current volatility. Debt has remained at the core, unfortunately, of both market and economic momentum since the global financial crisis."

"Shares in Qatar plunged, poised to become the fourth gauge in the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council to enter a bear market, as crude prices dropped to the lowest level since July 2009.

Qatar’s QE Index (DSM) lost 7 percent to 10,981.95 at 11:38 a.m. in Doha, bringing its decline since the peak in September to 23 percent. Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index (ADSMI) slipped 2.6 percent to 4,256.05, taking its retreat from a May peak to 19 percent. The measure has reversed gains this year to slide 1.5 percent.

Brent crude slumped to $61.85 a barrel last week after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its forecast for demand in 2015 to the weakest level in 12 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) had its worst week since 2011 and European shares fell the most in more than three years. The GCC is home to about a third of the world’s proven oil reserves."